Identifying and estimating the social values of irrigation: a plea for being explicit

Petra Hellegers*, Brian Davidson

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Governments justify decisions on irrigation projects partly because of the social benefits they have, i.e. the values that add to the wider objectives to society. Assessing social values is complex and can be approached in various ways. Cost–benefit analysis is too simplistic. The aim in this paper is to identify social values and to suggest an approach to assess them ex-post more comprehensively. Correlations between water applied and indicators of social objectives in individual regions have been used to show whether the social values associated with irrigation exist. Their extent and impact have been assessed using applied regression techniques.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)976-990
Number of pages15
JournalWater International
Volume49
Issue number8
Early online date29 Nov 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Keywords

  • applied regression
  • correlation coefficients
  • social benefit–cost analysis
  • Social values

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